Process of treating wood for use in electric storage batteries.



B. HEAP.

PROCESS OF TREATING woon FOR USE IN ELECTRIC STORAGE BATTERIES.

APPLIOATIOH FILED 00T.27, 1008. RENEWED JUKB 27, 1912.

1,051,580, Patented Jan. 28, 1913.

we ima A a w ATTORNEY UNITED srAr zs PATENT OFFICE.

BENJAMIN HEAP, OF CLIFTON JUNCTION, NEAR MANCHESTER, ENGLAND, ASSIGNOR TO THE ELECTRIC STORAGE BATTERY COMPANY, OF PHILADELPHIA, PENNSYL- VANIA, A CORPORATION OF NEW JERSEY. i

I PROCESS OF TREATING WOOD FOR USE IN ELECTRIC STORAGE BATTERIES.

Specification of Letters Patent. A Patented J an. 28, 1913.

Application filed October 27, 1908, Serial No. 459,687. Renewed June 27, 1912. Serial No. 706,289.

' To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, BENJAMIN HEAP, a subject of the King of Great Britain, and

residing at Clifton Junction, near Manchester, England, have invented a new and useful Process of Treating Wood for Use in Electric Storage Batteries, of which the following is a specification.

' Wooden separators are an example of the use of wood in electric storage batteries.

Provided that wood has been deprived of certain of its constituents, its presence in a storage battery is desirable, since it has the effect of increasing the capacit of the negative pole plates, especially if t ey are somewhat worn out, without deleteriously afl'ccting the positive pole plates, and furthermore it is excellent-.mate'rial from which to make separators. Treatments to which wood was heretofore subjected to fit it for use in storage batteries left the wood in such condition that it had to be kept wet in order to -prevent it from warping, shrinking, cracking, and the like, and to keep the wood wet was objectionable and made it awkward to store, ship and handle the wooden separators. V

The object of the present invention is to provide a process by which wood, for example, wood separators intended for use in electric storage batteries, can be properly treated so as to deprive it of its deleterious constituents and thereafter be dried with out danger of undue warping, shrinking, cracking, splitting, or the like.

The invention stated in general terms comprises the employment of alcohol or al- .cohol and water, instead of water in the treatment of the wood or wooden separators, and it further comprises the process to be presently described and finally claimed.

In the accompanying drawings there is illustrated in elevation, with parts broken away, one, but not the only type of apparatus that may be used in the practice of the invention.

In describing the process reference will be made to the accompanying drawings and to the treatment of wooden separators but without limiting the process thereto.

In the chamber 1 provided with means as I a steam coil 2, supplied by a valved steam pipe 3, is placed along with the wood separators, alcohol containing a p11 per 2' agent,

may be provided.

of which caustic potash is an example,

whereupon the chamber is closed and heated for a period of, for example four hours at a temperature of 140 centigradeand at a pressure of one hundred pounds to the square inch. The effect of this treatment is to extract from the wood certain substances and to leave in the wood other substances; those which are left in the wood are advantageous and those which are taken out are deleterious, when the separators are used in a storage atte'ry. At the completion of this treatment the liquid contents of the chamber 1 is conveyed as by a valved pipe 4 into the chamber 5 which is similar to the chamber 1 and may be heated by a steam coil 6 supplied by a steam pipe 7 From this chamber 5, alcohol is by heat evaporated and 1 the evaporated alcohol passes through a steam jacketed or otherwise steam heated pipe 8 to a water cooled or other condenser 9, from which it passes through a sight gage 10, past a valve 11, back to the chamber 1. In this operation the alcohol is deprived of the re-agcnt, caustic soda or whatever it was,

to ascertain whether or not its condition indicates that the separators have been sufliciently washed. When the separators have been sufliciently'washed the chamber 1 is caused to communicate by way of the valved pipe 14 and water-cooled or other condenser 15, with the chamber 16. Heat applied to the separators, for example, by the coil 2, evaporates from them alcohol, which in passing through the condenser 15, is condensed and recovered for future use in the chamber 16.

17 is a steam age and 18, are vents which What I claim is, y l 1. The process of treating wood to fit it alcohol as it leaves the chamber 1, in order for use in connection with storage battery plates, which consists in digesting or soakfor use in connection with storage battery plates, which consists in digesting or soaking it in an alcoholic solution of a suitable extractive reagent, and drying the wood so treated.

3. The process of treating Wood to fit itfor use in connection with storage battery Y plates, which consists in dissolving out dele- 15 terious substances and drying the wood, and maintaining the wood throughout the process substantially free from contact with Water.

In testimony whereof I have hereunto 20 signed my name.

WILLIA SLATER NAYLOR, J. Gr. DUNNE. 

